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LFX Flash, 5/13/2009
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Good news and bad news for Imax Corporation
 
On the heels of the good news that Star Trek had the best opening weekend of any IMAX DMR film on record, an online furor arose when the star of a new NBC sitcom slammed Imax Corporation and AMC Theaters for what he called "fake IMAX," i.e., IMAX digital theaters. The controversy erupted on the day before Imax hosted an analyst and investor day in New York.
 
Paramount Pictures' Star Trek, the 11th movie in the popular franchise, opened last Thursday on nearly 150 IMAX and 7,250 other screens. Earning $79.2 million in domestic box office, $8.5 million of which came from the IMAX theaters, it was the biggest opening weekend for an IMAX release, topping the $6.3 million taken in by The Dark Knight in July 2008. A large part of the increase was due to the addition of 74 IMAX digital theaters to the worldwide circuit, and it was this fact that led to Imax's bad news for the week.
 
On Tuesday, actor and comedian Aziz Ansari, star of NBC's Parks and Recreation, posted angry entries on Twitter (where he is followed by 25,000 fans) and on his blog, blasting Imax and AMC for the fact that the Burbank, CA, theater in which he saw Star Trek had only a "slightly bigger than normal screen and NOT the usual standard huge 72 ft IMAX screen." His rant, which urged a boycott of Imax, AMC, and Regal Entertainment Group, was quickly picked up and amplified by dozens of other bloggers and online outlets, virtually all of whom agreed with Ansari's criticism of the smaller IMAX digital theaters.
 
Aziz and most of the other sites linked to LF Examiner's October 2008 editorial on the digital system, and many joined LFX in urging Imax to rebrand the digital screens so that customers would know what they are getting before going into the theater.
 
According to The Hollywood Reporter, at the meeting with investors, Imax CEO Richard Gelfond and other executives "worked hard Wednesday to repair the damage done" by Ansari's charges and "spent the better part of the morning...trumpeting how the 'Imax experience' is more immersive than traditional cinema-going, rather than woo investors with their usual pep talk about how the current digital projection and joint-venture theater rollout will restore profitability this year."
 
The May issue of LF Examiner will have full reports on both of these stories. 
Sincerely,
 
James Hyder
Editor/Publisher
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